Here's some great video of an i getting dynoed. The laughter from the peanut gallery kinda quiets down when they see the hp curve (or lack thereof- it's just plain flat). 73.2 hp= 54 kW, and they claim it hit 80 hp on one run. Wonder whether the dyno was tuned a little on the generous side, or the iMiEV was spec'd conservatively?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI-bCZ_lKtw

So I'm coming off of a short highway stretch and spot a white Tesla up ahead. My response when I see an EV, Pavlovian, my wife says, is to speed up and check out the car and driver. Upon occasion, I have even had a short conversation with another EV driver. But I DO NOT drool.

But, he's lead footing it; I had to stomp in it to catch him, which if it wasn't for the light, I woudn't have. But I do catch him at the light and his attention. After complementing him on his car, a P90D, and hearing from him how great the car is, he looks at the iMiev and says: "What's that your driving?"

Sigh. I explained that it was a Mitsubishi iMiev and that it was all electric.

His response, with jaw dropping, was: "Really!?!"

I then explained that it cost under $10k.

This was followed by a short silence and a peel of laughter. So my response was: "It's quick, wanna drag race?"

He just about fell out of his car laughing, but said: "OK!"

The light turned and I floored it. Well, we were dead even for the first 10 feet . . .well, maybe 8 feet. . . Or maybe 3 feet. . . And he was gone, pedal to the metal. There was no other car near him, me included.

I really do appreciate the speed of the iMiev when floored, but I've never seen anything as fast as that Tesla before in person. It was a rocket.

I once was beside a Tesla at a red light. I knew the driver and was hoping to do a quick jolt up to the speed limit, but he turned. What a killjoy!

I did come across a Camaro ZL1 driver who was in a hurry. We ended up both being front cars at a red light. Light turns green, I hear him gun it, so I plant the pedal. I held him to 42 MPH before he started pulling ahead of me. At that point, I backed off as I approached the speed limit.

We all know the i-MiEV has about a two-second ramp-up time delay before achieving full battery current (about 155A) when we floor it. Infuriating, when we know it could be so much quicker off the line.

155A appears to be the maximum current, no matter what the SoC.

I've brought this up before, but never had much feedback and, frankly, have not tried to take measurements to validate the following:

Does battery charge level influence 0-60 drag-race times?

A fully-charged i-MiEV with a 360vdc battery pack would, if the voltage didn't sag a bit, put out 360v*155A = 55.8kW = 74.8hp